The MDL Changsa Major has concluded and we all know who the victors are and the losers. So how did the event unfold you ask?
Lets have a look at the group stages to see who went to the winners bracket, went to the losers bracket and who were abruptly eliminated without going to the playoffs
Here are tally of the games played by both brackets for further info
The most surprising here is previous Major Winner PSG.LGD has fallen to the losers bracket which can be a pretty dangerous spot. Secret also turned out to be making a strong comeback despite failing to win the previous minor and might just be testing a few strats on their previous tournament but definitely looked strong here.
With this information we know that the South American representative Infamous from group A and Vega Squadron from CIS Region were both eliminated. Leaving Secret and Vici Gaming as the winners of their respective brackets propelling them to the winners bracket of the playoffs leaving SEA's Mineski and TNC as well as OG as EU's representative and VGJ.Storm hailing from NA as the Losers bracket players.
The Playoffs
Lets head out to the first game of the losers bracket. Bear in mind that these Round 1 for the losers bracket are best of 1's making it very perilous even for a superstar team.
Newbie secures their hold on the game by beating out fellow Chinese team IG.V
A long 60 minute battle ensued and though this was not an easy fight Newbee shows its mantle.
On the other hand PSG.LGD beats their opponent convincingly as well. With this both IG and their sister team IG.V are both elimindated from the tournament leaving Newbee,PGS.LGD and ViciGaming as the 3 chinese team on the tournament.
Upper Bracket Round 1
This looks to be a sweet revenge for the young Ukrainian Resolut1ion as they beat his former team to submission with ease towards further advancement into the pre-semifinals.
With this, OG falls to the lower bracket but the second round will now be a best of 3 unlike the previous lower bracket match
Ahh the battle of the SEA number 1 and 2. With TNC's high chance of winning the first fight not happening it was an eventual 2-0 for team Mineski.
With this they advance to the Upper bracket pre-semifinals kicking down TNC into the lowerbracket.
Lower Bracket Round 2
OG was unable to get a footing against their opponent. Losing twice in a row and ending their run in this tournament.
Newbie secures their spot and would go on to live and fight another game and one step closer to their goal.
PSG.LGD looks unstoppable and continued its run towards the summit beating down TNC and although it looked close at times PSG.LGD always looked to be the better team on game one and three.
TNC is now out of the tournament but has one last card to play in the China supermajor before TI but it would be a hard ask for the SEA Powerhouse.
To be cont.
This is looking to be far longer than I was expecting to write but I dont want to sacrifice what my intention in writing is.
Due to time constraints as well as my reader's attention span. I'll be back to post another article shortly hopefully within the next day or two.
As we know the last tournament is just around the corner pre- TI 8. So what's left to discuss? Well the pre-semifinals upto the grandfinals as well as the ramificaitons of the DPC on this tournament.